NFL Playoff Predictions: Who Will Advance Out of Super Wild Card Weekend? ...Middle East

We provide one big question to track and reveal our model’s NFL playoff predictions for all six games of Super Wild Card Weekend.

Welcome to playoff football.

No longer do we have to see the likes of the Arizona Cardinals and New York Jets on our TV, but over the next three weekends, we’ll watch the best of the best battle for a chance to play for the Lombardi Trophy.

And this year’s path to the Super Bowl in Santa Clara, California, is as wide open as ever.

In the NFC, the three teams with the best records all came out of the same division and the other three division winners who will be hosting games in this Super Wild Card Weekend all lost in Week 18 with playoff seedings – as well as a playoff berth in the case of the Carolina Panthers – on the line.

The defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles opted to rest their starters in the regular-season finale instead of pushing for the conference’s No. 2 seed. And although they haven’t exactly looked overly dominant at times over the last month and a half, the Opta supercomputer still sees them as the favorites to come out of the NFC, predicting their likelihood of making the Super Bowl at 25.5% (as of Thursday).

The lone NFC participant who won’t be playing this weekend after clinching the conference’s top seed and the first-round bye, the Seattle Seahawks, have the next-best odds at 21.3%, followed by the Los Angeles Rams at 16.9% and the Green Bay Packers at 12.1% even though they enter the playoffs riding a four-game losing streak.

The second-seeded Chicago Bears aren’t far behind at 9.6% with the Carolina Panthers at 10.0% and the San Francisco 49ers – a team that could’ve clinched the conference’s top seed with a win in Week 18 – has the NFC’s lowest odds at 4.7%.

So, although our supercomputer has run its projections, it’s hard to predict anything after what we witnessed over the final few weeks of the regular season.

Let the playoffs begin.

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NFC Playoff Predictions

Los Angeles Rams (12-5) at Carolina Panthers (8-9)

Of all the games on the Super Wild Card Weekend slate, this matchup appears to be the most one-sided.

The fifth-seeded Rams rank first in total points per game (30.5), yards per game (394.6), yards per play (6.18) and successful play percentage (57.4), while the Panthers are 27th in scoring (18.3), 27th in yards per game (295.6), 26th in yards per play (4.97) and 21st in successful play percentage (47.8).

At 12-5, Los Angeles also finished with four more victories than Carolina, which fell to 8-9 with a loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last Saturday and needed some outside help to win the NFC South.

Yep, no reason to watch as the Rams should win easily.

Except for if you consider these same teams squared off on the same field six weeks ago, and Carolina stunned Los Angeles 31-28.

Back in Week 13, the Rams arrived in Charlotte boasting the NFC’s best record with Matthew Stafford the frontrunner in the MVP conversation. Playing as a heavy underdog, the Panthers intercepted Stafford twice to end the 37-year-old’s NFL record of 28 straight TD passes without an interception while strip-sacking him once.

Despite Stafford’s three-turnover day, Rams coach Sean McVay wasn’t overly concerned with the veteran quarterback’s rare sloppy performance on Carolina’s rain-soaked field.

A defense that was run over for 164 yards on the ground and allowed Bryce Young to pick them apart were much larger issues – and the Rams haven’t yet completely fixed those problems.

Following the loss to the Panthers, the Rams won three of their final five games – but two of those victories came against the woeful Cardinals. If we toss out those gimmies, Los Angeles gave up 34, 38 and 27 points in the other three contests, while permitting 460 rushing yards (an average of 5.90 yards per rush) and opposing quarterbacks recorded a 99.2 passer rating.

Young posted a career-best 147.1 QB rating against the Rams in Week 13, completing 15 of 20 passes for 206 yards with three touchdowns – including a go-ahead 43-yarder to rookie Tetairoa McMillan off a play-action pass with 6:34 remaining in the game. His other two TDs came on a 35-yard screen pass to Chuba Hubbard and a 33-yarder to Jalen Coker off a drop back on a 4th-and-3 on the Panthers’ first possession of the third quarter.

Carolina’s receivers had no trouble getting open against the Los Angeles secondary, registering a burn rate of 70.0% and Young had no problem finding them, throwing to an open receiver on 19 of his 20 passes, with four completions going for 20 or more yards.

The loss to the Panthers really exacerbated the Rams’ defensive woes. Through the first 12 weeks of the season, Los Angeles allowed 28 pass plays of 20 or more yards – tied for the fifth fewest in the NFL. But in six games since Week 13, the Rams were gashed for 25 such plays, with only the Baltimore Ravens (27) yielding more.

While the pressure will be on the Rams’ secondary, the good news for Los Angeles is that it has the firepower to light up the scoreboard if this game becomes a shootout. Stafford should also be getting one of his top playmakers back in Davante Adams, who has been sidelined with a hamstring injury since Week 15.

Despite missing the final three games, he still led the NFL with 14 touchdown receptions, with his last two coming against the Panthers.

Green Bay Packers (9-7-1) at Chicago Bears (11-6)

For just the third time in history, the NFL’s oldest rivals will meet in a playoff game.

Theoretically, there should be plenty of familiarity between the Packers and Bears – especially seeing as these bitter rivals will be meeting for the third time in less than five weeks – but given how the first two games unfolded and how these teams have played in recent weeks, it’s hard to predict what will transpire at Soldier Field this weekend.

The Packers won Round 1 at Lambeau Field in Week 14, with Keisean Nixon intercepting Caleb Williams in the waning seconds to seal a 28-21 victory. The Bears then took the rematch in Week 16 in Chicago, winning 22-16 in overtime on Williams’ 46-yard touchdown pass to DJ Moore with Nixon in coverage to cap an improbable comeback.

The second-seeded Bears haven’t won since then. The No. 7 seed Packers, meanwhile, haven’t won since beating the Bears more than a month ago.

It’s no coincidence that victory marks the last full game Micah Parsons played, with the All-Pro edge rusher suffering a torn ACL the following Sunday.

Jordan Love then sustained a concussion against the Bears in Week 16 and subsequently sat out Green Bay’s final two regular-season games. Now Love is good to go, but it’s possible he shows a little rust since he hasn’t played since Dec. 20.

Williams has no excuse for looking rusty early on in games, but that’s been the case for much of the season. In the first two meetings, Williams struggled to get Ben Johnson’s offense in rhythm, resulting in just five first downs in the two first quarters and six of their eight first-half drives resulting in a punt.

The numbers between Williams and the Bears from the first half to after halftime in the first two games against the Packers are stark.

Yes, Williams and the Bears have had a knack for pulling off dramatic fourth-quarter comebacks, but that’s hardly a recipe for sustained success, especially in the playoffs.

Though Williams already faced the Packers once without Parsons and had trouble getting the offense on track, Green Bay’s defense looked a little shaky in its final two games in losses to a pair of backup quarterbacks in the Ravens’ Tyler Huntley and the Minnesota Vikings’ Max Brosmer.

The Packers have also permitted an average of 170.8 rushing yards per game and 4.84 yards per rush during their four-game skid, and that bodes well for a Bears team that ranks third in rushing offense (144.5 yards per game) behind D’Andre Swift and rookie Kyle Monangai.

With a chance of snow and a crosswind in the forecast for Saturday on Chicago’s lakefront, establishing the ground game early would go a long way in setting the tone for Williams and the offense in the final installment of the 2025 Bears-Packers trilogy.

San Francisco 49ers (12-5) at Philadelphia Eagles (11-6)

If history is any indication, one of these two teams will be taking the field on Feb. 8 in Santa Clara, seeing as each of the last three Super Bowls featured either the 49ers or Eagles representing the NFC.

But for now, they meet with a spot in the divisional round at stake.

The Eagles became the first team in two decades to win consecutive NFC East titles, allowing them to begin their Super Bowl title defense at home.

But it has been a turbulent season for the reigning Lombardi Trophy winners. They endured a three-game losing streak that crossed into December and their offense has struggled mightily at times.

The 49ers, meanwhile, don’t want to hear about the third-seeded Eagles’ woes after dealing with significant injuries to defensive stars Nick Bosa and Fred Warner, as well as quarterback Brock Purdy.

San Francisco managed to overcome these obstacles and entered its season finale riding a six-game winning streak – including 37, 48 and 42 point-performances in Weeks 15-17.

With an opportunity to clinch the NFC’s top seed and the chance to play at home all the way through until the Super Bowl at their own Levi’s Stadium, the Niners mustered a season-low 173 yards in a 13-3 loss to the Seahawks, giving Seattle the No. 1 seed and dropping San Francisco to sixth.

At least Purdy didn’t get hurt.

Scratch that. He actually sustained a left shoulder injury on San Francisco’s final offensive play when he was smothered by a pair of Seattle defenders.

He will likely be playing with some pain this weekend, so look for Christian McCaffrey to be the focal point of the Niners’ offensive game plan, which is essentially what they do anyway.

McCaffrey’s 2,126 scrimmage yards were second only to the Atlanta Falcons’ Bijan Robinson’s 2,298, and his 413 offensive touches were the most by any player since 2014, when the Dallas Cowboys’ DeMarco Murray had 449.

It wasn’t easy, though, for McCaffrey.

His average of 3.86 yards per carry was his lowest since averaging 3.81 in an injury-plagued 2020 and his average of 2.26 yards before contact was the ninth lowest among the 33 running backs with at least 150 carries.

He kept defenses off balance with his ability to catch passes out of the backfield and this could pose problems for the Eagles.

Of his team-high 102 receptions, 38 came on quick-pass concepts from 45 targets, resulting in 323 yards with a burn rate of 60.0, which ranked fourth among the 28 running backs targeted at least 10 times on such plays.

The 49ers averaged 6.8 yards per pass on quick-strike throws to match the Pittsburgh Steelers for the highest in the NFL and achieved successful plays on a league-leading 54.8% of quick-pass concepts.

Although the Eagles allowed an NFL-low 4.1 yards per pass on quick-strike throws, McCaffrey presents problems as they struggled to cover running backs coming out of the backfield to catch passes. Opposing running backs averaged 10.1 yards per catch – the second highest in the NFL behind the Buccaneers at 10.9.

Production from their own running back is just one area where the Eagles had problems offensively this season.

Saquon Barkley’s 1,140 rushing yards were 864 fewer than a season ago as Philly ranked 23rd in average yards per rush at 4.16 – down from 4.91 in 2024.

With an ineffective ground game, the offense struggled to put up points, scoring fewer than 20 in six of nine games since Week 10. (Only the lowly Las Vegas Raiders had more such games over that span with eight.)

If McCaffrey and San Francisco’s offense can regroup and prove last week was just a minor hiccup, it might be able to leave Philadelphia with a win, considering the Eagles haven’t shown they’re able to consistently score points.

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NFL Playoff Predictions: Who Will Advance Out of Super Wild Card Weekend? Opta Analyst.

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